Top Up TV is to make the majority of its content available through a new personal video recorder (PVR) service, freeing up valuable digital terrestrial spectrum which will be used for premium sports and Five's two new digital channels.
Top Up TV is to make the majority of its content available through a new personal video recorder (PVR) service, freeing up valuable digital terrestrial spectrum which will be used for premium sports and Five's two new digital channels.

To be called Anytime, the PVR service will download up to 80 hours of extra programming onto a hard-drive that will be refreshed every night. The PVR will also allow customers to record up to 20 hours worth of content themselves. It will launch in the autumn.

In effect this makes the content from Top Up TV's 11 channels, such as Cartoon Network and UKTV Gold, available on-demand rather than in its current linear form. Top Up is also in talks with other broadcasters interested in making their archive material available on the service.

The spectrum made available when the channels move to an on-demand form will be used by Five to launch two new digital offerings Five Life and Five US which is the result of a deal struck between the two group's last November.

Setanta, which currently owns rights to broadcast live Scottish Premier League football and will show English Premiership matches from 2007, has also made it clear that it is keen to make its content available on Top Up TV.

Electronics manufacturer Thomson will make the first boxes for Top Up. They are likely to retail for around £100 for existing customers and £150 for new customers.

For chairman David Chance and Ian West vice chairman and CEO of Top Up the new service is a way of avoiding the spiralling cost of Freeview capacity which now costs around £10m for a channel slot. 'It's about evolving and expanding our business,' said Chance. 'If you stand still in this market you are dead'.

He added that the new service would continue to cost around the £7.99 - the amount current subscribers pay for 11 channels. The news comes after Top Up placed itself into voluntary liquidation last month as part of a corporate restructuring.